We decided to replace cgi with graphics and... How computer graphics become indistinguishable from reality

How are special effects for films created? What is digital painting? What do CG and CGI mean? We will answer these questions in this two-part article. And besides, here you will find addresses of websites on the topic and videos about creating special effects for films.

The article turned out to be so long that I had to divide it into two parts to make it easier to read. The first part is devoted to theory and special effects, and the second to digital painting and graphics.

In general, most of the resources on the Internet related to the creation of special effects and digital painting are of foreign origin. This is due to the fact that in Russia this area is still developing. That is why Russian blockbusters with beautiful special effects have appeared quite recently. It is worth mentioning Timur Bekmambetov, who gave impetus to modern Russian blockbusters (for which many thanks to him).

Concept

"CG" translates to "computer graphics". However, as a rule, this concept has a slightly different meaning. After all, the concept of “computer graphics” covers almost any field of activity where graphics are created by or with the help of a computer. However, the word “CG” specifically implies the creation of either special effects for video, or digital painting, or the creation of graphics for various interactive presentations and video games.

True, special effects in movies are usually called "CGI" ( computer- generated imagery , literally "computer-generated images"). Although, in principle, there are no special differences between CG and CGI.

And now the most interesting...

Special effects in cinema

Once upon a time, special effects were very primitive, but also innovative. Usually, the essence of special effects was to skillfully erase safety ropes, etc. from the frame to make everything look exciting and more interesting. All this happened in the days of silent films.

Later, when there was a need for various movie monsters, there was a need for corresponding special effects. Of course, if you need to create a humanoid or Bigfoot, then the actor simply applied makeup or put on a costume. However, creating something more complex caused big problems for directors.

To add bizarrely shaped creatures to movies, filmmakers came up with stop-motion animation. Those. a plasticine model of the creature was made, and then photographed many times, while its body pose was slightly changed. And then, if you quickly scrolled through such photographs (30 frames per second), it looked like the creature was moving. Although it looked ridiculous, the directors managed to make it quite interesting.

It was stop-motion animation that changed everything (even modern special effects are made according to the same principle). However, even in our time, some cartoons are made using frame-by-frame animation, because such cartoons look unique and interesting.

And then came the era of information and computerization...
Then the film industry realized that it was possible to render special effects using a computer. Moreover, characters and various creatures can also be drawn directly on the computer and transferred to film during editing. Then the first films with “embedded” characters appeared.

However, with this came problems. Due to the fact that such characters were superimposed on the tape after filming, the actors had to show all their acting abilities in order to interact with such an “invisible partner”.

When Steve Jobs created Pixar, he wanted to create a cartoon made and drawn entirely using a computer. This is how the Toy Story series was born.

Modern cinema is not far from the basics used by the forefathers of special effects. Only the plasticine creatures were replaced by creatures made entirely in graphic editors. However, there are a couple of techniques and tricks that modern directors actively use...

ChromaKey

Pronounced "chroma kay", although the correct pronunciation should be "chroma kee". The idea is simple: the actor is filmed against the backdrop of a green or blue cloth (rear screen), and after that the canvas is replaced with an image. Those. you can film almost an entire film in one pavilion, where the main character travels around the planet (by the way, this is how the film Resident Evil 4 was created).

To project the desired image well onto the rear screen, you need to use a monotonous soft color, and therefore either green or blue are usually used.

MotionCapture

This means "motion capture". Special sensors (white balls or cubes, etc.) are attached to a real actor, and then all his movements are analyzed on a computer. Those. an actor fully dressed in a suit of sensors makes some movements, and then this animation data is transferred to a computer character. This way the computer character moves just like a human (smoothly and physically correctly).
And sometimes, motion capture is used locally, for example, to add something computer-generated to a real actor (computer makeup, if you like).

3D graphic editors

Without them, you won’t be able to make a single three-dimensional monster or creature, or build an entire city. To add, say, King Kong, you need to first model him. This is done in three-dimensional graphic editors, and the process is more like creating a sculpture. You need not only to be able to handle such programs, but also to know the basics of anatomy, composition, etc. As a rule, such people are also called artists, since the principle of work is almost the same.

Usually, a primitive model of the character is first made in order to understand how he will behave in the frame, how much space he will occupy, and how the actors should interact with him. And then a high-quality model is made for installation.

The skill of modern special effects creators is amazing. Fully simulated actors are already being created - of course, why pay a real actor when you can make your own, who will neither be capricious nor get sick.

In the following image you can see actor Jeff Bridges from the movie Tron: Legacy. On the left is the real Jeff Bridges, and on the right is his artificial young copy (which was created on a computer). Amazing, isn't it...

Filmmakers have many more clever ideas for using computer technology in cinema. Who knows, maybe tomorrow this article will have to be updated - new technologies for producing special effects will appear. Now special effects and artificial computer characters are indistinguishable from reality, but what will happen next...

At the end I want to show you a few short videos about the creation of special effects in some films.

The creation of moving images is done by computer animation, which is a narrower area of ​​​​CGI graphics, applicable, including in cinema, where it allows you to create effects that cannot be achieved using traditional makeup and animatronics. Computer animation can replace the work of stuntmen and extras, as well as scenery.

Story

The first time computer graphics were used in a feature film was in Westworld, released in 1973. In the second half of the 1970s, films using elements of three-dimensional computer graphics appeared, including Tomorrow World, Star Wars and Alien. In the 1980s, before the release of the second Terminator, Hollywood cooled down to computer effects, in particular due to the more than modest box office receipts of Tron (1982), which was entirely built on the use of the latest achievements in computer graphics.

In "Jurassic Park" (1993), for the first time, it was possible to replace the stuntman with the help of CGI; the same film was the first to seamlessly combine CGI (the skin and muscles of the dinosaurs were created using computer graphics) with traditional filming and animatronics. In 1995, the first full-length cartoon completely simulated on a computer was released - “Toy Story”. The film "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Us" (2001) featured realistic CGI images of people for the first time

The main feature of the film remake of the 1967 Disney feature film is not even the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Christopher Walken (which the Russian viewer will not hear in the dubbing anyway), but the fact that during the 105 minutes of the incredibly realistic film, only one living person appears in the frame - Mowgli , played by debutant Neel Sethi. All other characters were created using computer graphics, for which director Jon Favreau has already received an award from the PETA organization, since during filming not a single animal was harmed or even worked on the set.

What happened before

The first film made entirely with computer animation (CGI) was the short film Hummingbird, released in Belgium in 1967. Back then, no one could imagine what the future would hold for the new technology. Until the early 1990s, computer graphics, like the entire IT field, developed at a very slow pace by today's standards. The breakthrough was Jurassic Park (1993) with its realistic CGI dinosaurs. Two years later, Toy Story was released, the first full-length cartoon made on a computer from start to finish.

2001 was a turning point in the history of CGI, graphics were divided into two directions. “Shrek” was released, the characters of which looked, on the one hand, realistic, but on the other, still stylized. At the same time, the science fiction film “Final Fantasy” was released, which marked the beginning of photorealism in CGI - the desire to create characters indistinguishable from real living beings. The continuators of this trend were “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”, “Beowulf”, “Avatar”, “Life of Pi” and, finally, “The Jungle Book”.

What's new in The Jungle Book

When creating The Jungle Book, Favreau and his team made full use of all the advances in the field of CGI. The director has extensive experience using computer graphics thanks to his work on the same "Iron Man", but in "The Jungle Book" Favreau wanted to go even further: to tell a fairy tale using an entirely photorealistic image. We already saw something similar in “Life of Pi” - then some viewers at first even refused to believe that the tiger in the film was completely computer generated. In The Jungle Book, not only the tiger (by the way, very impressive and quite scary for a children's cartoon) has already been created with the help of CGI, but also the entire jungle. Special effects development was led by Rob Legato, who previously worked on computer graphics for Avatar.

How real footage and graphics are combined

An oversaturated color scheme of computer graphics, which is out of color from the overall picture, destroys all realism, and the rendered characters simply fall out of the scene. Therefore, the most important process when creating computer animation is compositing (from the English compositing - “layout”). At this stage, 3D models are integrated into the surrounding reality.

Compositing involves combining character models with background video and other elements of the frame, including footage of live actors (usually shot against a green background using chroma key). First, various video layers are superimposed on each other, then the brightness of the layers is equalized and color correction occurs.
The creators of The Jungle Book tried to make the border between reality and computer graphics as invisible as possible. For each individual scene involving Mowgli, new sets were built, including a three-meter jungle. Then the material filmed in the pavilions was combined with computer models. So, in one of the scenes, the hero first crawls through very real mud, and then jumps on an animal created using computer graphics, which helps him escape from, again, a computer Shere Khan. It is difficult even for a specialist to understand where reality ends and digital animation begins.

Realistic movements and rigging

All the achievements of brilliant artists, 3D modelers and composers can be erased by unrealistic physics. And motion simulation is one thing, believable movements of living characters are another. The sensational scene from The Lord of the Rings, where Legolas, from the point of view of realism is perceived in much the same way as the Tom and Jerry cartoon. In recent years, more and more technologies have emerged that calculate the movements of living beings. For example, it simulates the deformation of human soft tissues during movement and adds weight to parts of the body.

High-quality rigging (from the English rig - “rigging”) is also very important - the creation and development of a virtual skeleton and joints inside a three-dimensional character model. All the constituent elements of the animated figure (not only the limbs, but also the facial muscles, eyes, lips, etc.) are given characteristics, and a hierarchical relationship is built between them. Fine tuning allows you to make truly realistic models.

Motion capture

Motion capture is used to create a character's facial expressions and movements. The technology became widespread in the 1990s, after it was first used to create character animation for the computer game Virtua Fighter 2 in 1994. Motion capture began to be actively used in cinema in the 2000s (The Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, Avatar, Harry Potter, Life of Pi).

There are marker and markerless motion capture systems. The most popular are the first ones, where special equipment is used: the actor is put on a suit with sensors (to create facial expressions, sensors are placed on the face), the data from which is recorded and transferred to a computer. In markerless, computer vision and pattern recognition technologies are used to record data. Then the computer combines the received information into a single three-dimensional model, and then an appropriate animation is created based on it.

Thus, motion capture serves to transfer the movements and facial expressions of real actors onto computer models, resulting in a portrait resemblance of the characters to the actors who voiced them. Thanks to motion capture in The Lord of the Rings, Gollum retained , and Smaug did so. In The Jungle Book, by the way, not all the characters have a similar face to the actor who plays them. The boa constrictor Kaa, for example, only adopted a velvety voice from Scarlett Johansson - Jon Favreau explained in an interview that “to give a snake a face similar to a person would be completely ridiculous.”

Eyes and facial expressions

Photographic realism of characters is impossible without high-quality rendering of their facial expressions. Work in this area is carried out in two main directions: directly generating the appropriate animation and applying it to the characters. The animation itself is created, as a rule, using the same motion capture technique. A smooth change in a character’s facial expressions is achieved in Autodesk Maya and 3DS Max using the blendshaping (morphing) technique.

Despite the rapid development of computer graphics in recent decades, for a long time there was no way to create realistic human eyes. In 2014, Disney proposed a method to solve this problem: when capturing eye expression, place separate markers on the eyeball, cornea and retina, and then compose the resulting data and overlay it on a 3D computer model of the eye.

Emotions and age

Disney specialists recently shared a test version of the unusual FaceDirector software - a kind of auto-tune for emotions. The program allows you to combine several takes in real time, depicting a whole palette of different emotions, and adjust the acting. The program provides the director with the opportunity in post-production to combine several facial expressions, enhance or remove the emotional intensity at a certain moment in the scene.

Another development is digital cosmetics that can restore youth to actors. The impressive video was presented by VFX specialist Rousselos Aravantinos, who used a Nikon V1 camera and programs NUKE and Mocha Pro. Similar stunts were performed in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Hair and wool

Creating realistic fur and hair is a difficult technical task, one that animators have been struggling with for a long time. Hair as a 3D model is a whole system that must maintain its integrity and character, while in dynamics each individual hair must behave independently and react to collisions with other hairs. Simulations of believably swaying fur as an animal moves have been learned to be created relatively recently, and modern plugins for CGI editors, such as XGen, have simplified the task for animators. It is known that this particular hair generator was used in the creation of Zootopia and Toy Story 3.

What programs are used to create special effects and who creates them?

Many large studios like Pixar and Disney use their own software to create computer graphics, but they also resort to programs available to the general public, including Autodesk Maya, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Luxology Modo, Houdini. Thus, most of the special effects in Avatar were created using Maya; Adobe After Effects was used for compositing.

As a rule, several companies work on computer graphics for large projects. The creators of The Jungle Book resorted to the services of the British MPC and the New Zealand Weta Digital. MPC also worked on Life of Pi, World War Z and all of the Harry Potter films. Developers Weta Digital worked on graphics in Avatar, The Avengers, The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings. Most companies specializing in special effects are registered in the USA and Britain, but many of them move part of their production to India and China, creating their own studios there or buying existing ones. Thus, in 2014, the British Double Negative and the Indian Prime Focus merged, which then jointly created the graphics for Interstellar. However, Chinese and Indian special effects studios that are not part of large companies are not yet as popular among filmmakers as Western ones, mainly due to the lack of sufficient experience and resources.

CGI in our everyday life

Complex technologies for creating computer animation are gradually becoming available to the masses. Among the latest achievements in this area, one can note the program released in 2014 or the sensational Belarusian application. They allow you to superimpose animation on the user’s face or people caught in the lens of his camera in real time. A similar function is available in the Snapchat messenger. The applications track the user's movements, analyze them, and superimpose the received data onto three-dimensional models in real time, that is, they use methods similar to those used to convey the facial expressions of characters in films and computer games.

Just a few years ago, a group of highly respected Hollywood actors and directors were seriously trying to organize a movement to protect live artists who, in their opinion, were threatened by the expansion of digital artists. Robert Zemeckis made a particularly strong impression on people with his “The Polar Express,” “Beowulf,” and “A Christmas Story,” where the actors were replaced by computer dummies. Years have passed, but digital remains a tool; nothing threatens the bread and butter of Hollywood stars.

Moreover, over the past years, technology has not made a qualitative leap - special effects are sometimes lame even today, and CGI characters are sometimes scary to the point of trembling in the worst sense of these words. We believe that in a couple of years, viewers will remember with horror the heroes of the recently released Warcraft and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. But now, together with the Film.ru portal, we will remember those computer heroes who spoiled our viewing pleasure a little earlier - and this is the best proof of the superiority of man over machine.

Max Rebo Band – Return of the Jedi

It has long been known that George Lucas's worst enemy is George Lucas himself. How many copies have been broken around his decision to “correct” the classic Star Wars trilogy, and it seems that there are still more people dissatisfied with the changes than those who were delighted with the corrections. Take, for example, Max Rebo's musical ensemble, accompanying the whims of Jabba the Hut. In the original Return of the Jedi, it was a trio, two of which were portrayed by latex-clad performers, and the third was a puppet. In the revised third film, the trio were joined by nine more newcomers, but, by God, it’s better not to see this - they are ridiculous, lopsided and look like alien bodies in their usual company. Wouldn't you be chasing quantity, George?

Young Razor – “Downhole Revenge”

In general, Peter Segal’s “killer revenge” cannot be called a film replete with special effects. The scene with an unsuccessful attempt to rejuvenate the hero Sylvester Stallone using a computer looks even more ridiculous. In one of the episodes, we are shown footage supposedly thirty years ago, in which “Razor” says goodbye to the big box – next to the live actors in the frame there is something with a mouth that opens out of time with speech. There is no doubt for a second that we are looking at a computer doll from a video game from the end of the last century or at an exhibit of a wax museum exposed in the sun.

Blarp - "Lost in Space"

The replacement of an animatronic doll with a computer character is horrifyingly obvious in the fantasy adventure Lost in Space. An extremely unfortunate forgery. Firstly, the CGI here stands out too much with its color scheme and uneven lighting. Secondly, the contact of the drawn ape-lizard creature with live actors looks frankly unsuccessful - the monster wriggling in the hands of Joey Trabbiani does not disturb the human fingers at all, and Heather Graham strokes the baby without touching it at all. It's just painful to watch.

Jar Jar Binks - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

A new addition to the Star Wars saga, Jar Jar Binks is still one of the franchise's least favorite characters. He falls out of the ranks of the heroes of both the classic and new trilogy, he does not fit into the atmosphere and does not get into the mood - Binks is alien to the film from the first frame to the last. Perhaps it is not made in the worst way, but this does not add to its charm - it is over the top stupid, its idiotic face just begs for a fist, and its clumsiness is not amusing, but annoying. There were, however, theories among fans explaining the intentionality of Binks' stupidity, but they remained dreams, and Jar Jar is just an unpleasant hero.

Green Lantern – "Green Lantern"

Oh, that computer suit of Ryan Reynolds in “Green Lantern”... Two hundred million dollars were wasted on the graphics, and the main character looks like an idiotic Christmas tree decoration, a light bulb in a garland, sparkling with artificial light. To be fair, in this picture all the graphics look fake, cartoonish and not at all alive, and there is a lot of it. Even the modest mask that hides Hal Jordan's eyes was rendered in post-production. Well, where is this good? Now "Lantern" is more of a source of jokes, including from the lips of Reynolds himself, but are studio bosses happy with this situation?

Langoliers - "Langoliers"

Yes, yes, this is a television series, filmed at a time when multimillion-dollar TV budgets could only be dreamed of in the sweetest dreams. But this does not negate the ugliness of the titular monsters devouring the past - it is difficult to find a person who, having read a Stephen King story, would look at these meatballs with teeth and say: “Yes! This is exactly how I imagined them!” Perhaps a neighbor's child helped the concept designer - otherwise how else can we explain the resemblance of the Langoliers to Pac-Man, only smeared with something brown (let's not even think about what). Bad, very bad.

The Scorpion King - "The Mummy Returns"

The most striking example of how unsuccessful special effects can ruin a film is the film “The Mummy Returns,” in which the Scorpion King wedges himself between Rick O’Connell and Imhotep, almost scaring away the audience. Although it would be more correct to say not “scaring”, but “making me laugh” - the Scorpio King did not look like a product paid for by a generous hundred million dollars. The final battle with the “drawn” Dwayne Johnson was completely similar to a beginner’s attempt at conquering the 3D editor package on his computer for the first time; for professionals, such a terrifying quality is simply unacceptable.

Monster – “Something”

The best proof that computer visual effects are still not far removed from the classic films of the last century is the 2011 remake of the horror film The Thing. The new film, in fact, was made in order to surpass the original (and in fact also a copy) of 1982, but surprisingly, the monster in Carpenter’s film looks more convincing compared to its younger brother. Of course, in 1982 it was more difficult, but this complexity gave specialists the impetus to invent something new. Today, monsters look like pitiful versions of what scared us in childhood. It would be better not to do such remakes.

Conductor - "Polar Express"

Having mentioned Zemeckis's experiments in computer graphics, we cannot help but return to his work, but if you choose the worst character that the new movie Frankenstein gave birth to, you can get stuck for a long time - everyone is too ugly. However, let's focus on the most obvious - the leading character of the debut film, the conductor of the Polar Express. This hero should be endearing, but this angular monster with Tom Hanks' death mask instead of a face is more frightening than endearing. The director's creepy experiment backfired - A Christmas Carol became the creepiest cartoon in history. Not recommended for children. Adults too.

Liu Kang - Mortal Kombat 2: Annihilation

The moment when Liu Kang, one of the heroes of the popular video fighting game Mortal Kombat, turns into a dragon is perhaps the most anticipated scene for fans in the second film of the franchise. By the time of transformation, everyone is already on edge, battles follow one after another, but instead of a climax and an explosion of emotions, the sight of a dragon evokes pity and apathy. A heartbreaking sight, unworthy even of its less technologically advanced time, this dragon does not inspire fear, it looks like a moth-eaten lizard, hastily rendered on some amateur's home computer. How can we save the Earth from annihilation with this? Unless you just make your enemies laugh until they cry.

Werewolves - "Twilight"

It's unfair to blame the first film in the Twilight franchise for poor quality CGI, since the film's budget was a modest $37 million. However, by the final film, filming had already cost 120 million per picture, but the quality of the effects remained the same “caveman”. Well, okay, the super speed of vampires can be depicted as a banal daub in the frame, but the wolves should have been drawn better. While Jacob and his company are standing, it’s all right, but in motion, it’s just blood from the eyes. The franchise has an impressive fan base that has brought in a lot of money at the box office, but it's hard to imagine anyone paying their money to see a cartoon werewolf.

T-800 – “Terminator: May the Savior Come”

The fourth film in the line of feature films about a robot sent from the future to correct the past in favor of SkyNet, “Terminator: May the Savior Come” is filled with special effects. The post-production directors did their best - there is not an ounce of complaints about the mechanisms, but with the people... More precisely, with one person, with the key actor of the franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, there was a problem. The fact is that at the time of filming, Arnie was still working in politics and could not devote himself to the film. Instead, McG used the actor's "digital face" stretched onto another person. The effect was terrifying, but Schwartz’s cameo was for a long time presented as the main “highlight” of the film.

Young Flynn - Tron: Legacy

Director Joseph Kosinski is certainly a talented visionary, but some of the technical challenges are difficult for even him to cope with. The long-awaited sequel to “Tron” was supposed to amaze the viewer with the latest achievements in the field of special effects, but in fact the picture was remembered only for the sluggish confrontation between the young and mature Jeff Bridges. Moreover, the computer-generated young Flynn was inferior in every way to his living counterpart - as soon as the camera took a closer shot, the lifeless facial expressions of the clone became obvious, and the dead eyes could not be hidden. One thing saved the film - according to the plot, the computer Flynn was not supposed to be human. But this does not add to his sympathy.

Hulk - "Hulk"

On the way to the screen of “Hulk”, Ang Lee was supported by a huge army of fans of the Green Giant, but the end result was more disappointing than encouraging for many - some ridiculous green computer-generated spot took up the frame. Eric Bana cannot be denied his efforts to portray Bruce Banner, but for the Brute his talent was not needed, the Hulk was “drawn” without any reference to the actor, and this turned one of the most beloved comic book characters into a lifeless pile of polygons. The same problem, by the way, buried The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton in the title role, and only Joss Whedon was able to cope with the character, using the mocap technique, coupled with the efforts of Mark Ruffolo.

Inhumans – “I Am Legend”

For its time, the fantastic drama “I Am Legend” by Francis Lawrence cost fabulous money - $150 million. A lot could have been done with this money, but it seems that a significant part of these funds ended up in Will Smith's accounts. Hence the very mediocre “graphics”. Moreover, the opponents of the only surviving person were initially supposed to be played by made-up stuntmen, but later the director decided to replace people with computer models. On purpose or not, the nonhumans turned out to be lifeless, and their movements did not fit into the laws of physics. This greatly spoils the tape.